A New Silent Majority Exists & It's Sick of the Tea-Bagger Noise

by David Zephyr [Subscribe]
Sun Oct 24, 2010 at 04:47:07 PM PDT

"Oops, maybe they have awakened a sleeping giant that would have otherwise ignored this election and just sat it out. Oops, maybe the tea-baggers got too loud, you know, like an alarm clock."

David Zephyr's diary :: ::

Remember the "Silent Majority"? Well, it's back in 2010, but it's not the old Richard Nixon voting base anymore. No, there's a new Silent Majority in America. Oh, it's still silent. And it is the majority. But make no mistake, there's been a tectonic shift culturally, racially and demographically from the America of the 1950's and 1960's. And that's not good news for the Republican Party. Why?

Because America's new Silent Majority is growing sick and tired of the of crude, loud right-wing, tea-bagging minority and their vulgar antics. You can take this to the bank.

So, just who is this Silent Majority? I'll tell you.

They are the quiet men and women in the grocery line when the right-wing cranky woman starts gassing her lunacy out loud about President Obama being a Muslim, being born in Kenya, or hating white people, or that he is cozy with terrorists.

They are parents, who attend school sports events with their kids, and are forced to endure hearing that same old, cranky man in the bleachers talking loudly -- and always loud enough so everyone can hear him -- about that "god-damned Nancy Pelosi" and the Democrats for socializing our health-care" and "taking away our constitutional rights".

This new Silent Majority of Americans includes not just whites, blacks, asians, latinos, but also families that are blessedly mixed racially, and who have a gay child, brother, sister, aunt or uncle that they love dearly. These Americans may not speak up in that grocery line or at the sports event, for not wanting to embarrass their children or because it's just not how they behave. But, believe me, their silence is deadly.

Americans are not fooled. They know that every town has these cranks, who are always the usual suspects, the same ones who quote Rush Limbaugh, who always get "worked up" about this or that, who harangue city council meetings with their right-wing crap. They know them.

The American People remember.

The American People know good and god-damned well who caused the great financial collapse, and who caused the national wave of home foreclosures. They know it was George W. Bush and his Republican Party.

The American People know good and god-damned well who caused the horrific unemployment in our nation, who cheer-led the outsourcing of their jobs to cheap foreign labor. No amount of Republican television advertising can make them forget who ran the Titanic into the iceberg.

The American People know good and god-damned well who started these two multi-trillion dollar wars that returned young boys and girls back to their hometowns in caskets or permanently maimed physically and mentally. And Americans know exactly who to blame for it.

And this Silent Majority, normally apathetic, typically apolitical has been holding their collective tongue for the last 12 months, as the right-wing rabble began their shouting, whipping up their pathetic, puny "loud minority" into harassing Democratic candidates at public forums, seizing town-hall meetings, stirring up hatred for immigrants and minorities. And they have not liked what they have seen. More...

On Obama and His 'ILLEGAL' Aunt

While many are paying delicate attention to the polls and the presidential elections, others are trying its hardest to bash the presidential candidates.

Obama's aunt according to this article, is living in the United States 'illegally.' I'd like to think of it this way: she just overstayed her visa a little longer just like many of us have.

Obama's half aunt, who is from Kenya, was ordered to leave the United States years ago after an immigration judge denied her request for asylum, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press late Friday. This person spoke on condition of anonymity because no one was authorized to discuss the case.

The woman, Zeituni Onyango (zay-TUHN on-YANG-oh), is living in public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama's late father.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked its inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility on Saturday to investigate whether any policies were violated when information about Onyango's case was publicly disclosed, ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. The Homeland Security Department, which oversees ICE, cannot disclose details about an individual's immigration status.

Information about Onyango's case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release, just five days before the presidential election. Obama's campaign strategist David Axelrod said people are suspicious about stories that surface so close to an election.

Obama said Saturday he did not know his aunt was living in the United States illegally and believes that laws covering the situation should be followed.

What scares me on this article is Obama'a reaction and indifference to her family member. Yes i understand, political tactics and formalities, but if this is his family that they are talking about here, what hope do we, DREAMers have?

On another note, i will make sure to tell all foreigners that i know and that have donated to the campaign to ask for a reimbursement from Obama's campaign since it is banned that we contribute:

The campaign said it was returning $260 that Onyango had contributed in small increments to Obama's presidential bid over several months. Federal election law prohibits foreigners from making political donations. Onyango listed her employer as the Boston Housing Authority and last gave $5 on Sept. 19.

Rest of the article

The Way Obama Makes Me Feel

I know that many people don't consider Rolling Stone magazine a liable source of politics, but today i found this opinion article that made me agree to a lot of points. A lot of the thoughts written by the author were as if they were extracted from me.
I am not a US citizen, i am a DREAMER, but the hope that Obama has injected in me is like one i have not felt since mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio woke up among the masses and gave us hope. His way to infect hope and change was soon cut short when he was assassinated.

I can't fail to mention the many things I've been learning about American politics, I have yet to learn more. Yes, countries in Latinamerica are corrupt with its politics and many more things, but you know what... the United Stated does not fall short either... all you have to do is look at the Hillary Clinton campaign for instance.


*****

The Machinery of Hope
Inside the grass-roots field operation of Barack Obama, who is transforming the way political campaigns are run
By TIM DICKINSONPosted Mar 20, 2008 3:00 PM

It's Presidents day, two weeks before the Texas primary, and Adam Ukman has come to the small city of San Marcos to train precinct captains for Barack Obama. A soft-spoken native of Houston, Ukman has served on the campaign's front lines in Iowa and Utah, organizing grass-roots supporters to secure decisive victories in both states. This evening, more than eighty residents of San Marcos have crammed into a yellow clapboard recreation center on a street dotted with shacks that date from the Jim Crow era. "Our job is not to run in here to tell you how it's going to be," Ukman tells them. "This is your campaign. Not our campaign."

Anyone who has spent time around Democratic politics has heard this kind of rhetoric before. Most often, it's pure horseshit. But Ukman is not here to break in a batch of untrained organizers. He knows that there is literally hundreds of years of organizing experience in the room — all he needs to do is set it loose. There's Michael Collins, an old-school politico in a tan Stetson who chaired John F. Kennedy's campaign in West Texas in 1960. A few seats over is Sandra Tenorio, who oversaw immigration issues for Gov. Ann Richards in the 1990s. And there's "Big Bob" Barton, a fixture of local party races since he worked as a volunteer for Gene McCarthy in '68. "I first voted for a Democrat more than fifty years ago," he barks out in his dry baritone. "I try not to fall in love with too many men, but this is the best damn one we've had since John Kennedy."

What Ukman is doing here in the rec center in the Hill Country of Texas is something new in American politics. Over the past year, the Obama campaign has quietly worked to integrate the online technologies that fueled the rise of Howard Dean —as well as social-networking and video tools that didn't even exist in 2004 — with the kind of neighbor-to-neighbor movement-building that Obama learned as a young organizer on the streets of Chicago. "That's the magic of what they've done," says Simon Rosenberg, president of the Democratic think tank NDN. "They've married the incredibly powerful online community they built with real on-the-ground field operations. We've never seen anything like this before in American political history."

In the process, the Obama campaign has shattered the top-down, command-and-control, broadcast-TV model that has dominated American politics....(More)

Mana speaks for immigrants at Premios lo Nuestro

Last nite was the annual Premios Lo Nuestro presented in Univision. Premios lo Nuestro is the version of MTV Video Music Awards for Spanish television.

I must admit that i never really sit to watch these shows, but last night i changed the channel as Mana, the mexican rock group won artist of the year. Everything looked normal and ordinary until Fher, the singer of the band spoke for immigrant rights by saying that the United States had to recognized the need for the dignity of immigrants and the need for an immigration reform. I was shocked and was expecting Univision to cut the sound at any second. The crowd did not react much.

Mana is known for its efforts in environmental activism worldwide and for having talks with Irish band U2 in contributing musically, but i must say that last nite certainly came as a surprise.

I also found this article in Univision where Mana sympathizes with Hillary Clinton in women and immigration issues. Worth reading.

On another different note, did u guys watch the democratic debate last night? Senator Obama mentioned the need for the DREAM Act!!!

Critiquing Obamas Interview

Dan Kowalski (Bender's Immigration Bulletin) Comments on the Barack Obama Interview: ""Obama on Immigration: Just OK"


From Immigration Prof Blog:

Dan Kowalski, Editor-in-Chief Bender's Immigration Bulletin (LexisNexis), offers these insights on the interview with Barack Obama that was posted here yesterday. If you would like to publish a commentary on the interview, please send it our way:


To be honest, when this "exclusive interview" was announced, I was expecting a video (or at least an audio podcast) of a live give-and-take between skeptical reporters or topic experts asking tough questions and putting the candidate on the spot with little, if any, opportunity for reflection. So I was a bit disappointed to find, instead, a canned written product, giving us nothing we hadn't heard before. I'm sure the Senator approved the final product, but I'm also sure 99% of it was written for him by a staffer. I hope this format will be scrapped when other candidates are "interviewed."

Beyond the platitudes, the nugget that struck me hardest was the Senator's rationale for voting for the Secure Fence Act. He says he voted for it even though it sends two strong messages with which he disagrees - that Mexico is "not our friend" and that an enforcement-only approach can work - because "restoring order in the border region is necessary to winning the American people's support for full reform." That's disingenuous (a word Obama loves) at best, because he knows that no fence, long or short, will restore "order" on the borders. Moreover, it's a candidate's (and a President's) job to lead and persuade, not hide behind "safe" votes. And as I've argued before, trying to "secure the borders" first is putting things backwards. Obama tries to soften the blow by saying he'll only support more border fencing "where it can help discourage illegal entry and dangerous crossings over desert terrain [Where else would they put it?] ...[and only] in coordination and cooperation with local communities." Reaction from border communities to today's release of the Border Patrol's fencing plans should make it abundantly clear that the border fence is nothing more than a pork-barrel boondoggle of the highest order; Obama should suck it up and admit his vote was wrong.

Obama (and all your interviewees) should be pinned down on numbers and categories and definitions: How many (more) green cards do we need? How many (more) non-immigrant visas? How should we re-write the visa categories, grounds of exclusion and removal, detention rules, judicial review rules and hardship waivers to bring the statute into the 21st century. It could get tedious, and long, but as Justice Scalia says, "administrative law is not for sissies."

Finally, when your group interviews other candidates, I'd scrap the Elvira Arrellano question. Call me heartless, but her story leaves me cold. There are thousands of stories out there of folks who suffered much more than she did, and without breaking any laws beyond crossing without papers. They would be better examples of our broken system.

Daniel M. Kowalski

[It should go w/o saying, but those are my views alone, not necessarily those of Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., and/or LexisNexis]

Previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/09/dan-kowalski-be.html

Obama Speaks on Immigration and the DREAM ACT

Law Professors Hing, Chacon, and Johnson from the UC Davis Law School arranged an interview with Barack Obama regarding immigration. For the most part his answers appear programmed, but the way presidential campaigns are these days, that's how candidates are supposed to talk.

He is saying he will be "finally passing the DREAM Act," which tells me he's thinking it will come later. Some were hoping it would come up this week. I actually thought that if the military is as desperate for recruits as is reported, they would pressure the senate to pass the bill. Looking back at U.S. history, the military usually gets what it wants. That is unless our senators who appear to be "segregationists in disguise" draw up so much hysteria that 60 senators can't be gathered up to vote on the DREAM ACT.

-----
The interview took place last night. Below is a small excerpt:

"I am committed to fighting for comprehensive iImmigration reform during my first term as president, to reducing the Latino drop-out rate, to finally passing the DREAM Act, to providing the 47 million uninsured Americans with affordable, high quality health care, to ending the war in Iraz, and to challenge the failing policies of the last seven years that have left many Latinos, and all Americans behind."




Previously posted on Immigration Prof Blog

Click title of this post for Obama's complete interview